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ISSN 1556-4975 
 

Three Poems, by Chris Crittenden.

Reaction To The Irrefutable

 

doubts bushwhacked me,
invasive as amperes.
my veins bristled like sedate ivy
hiding a rose.

so many logical hooks
made it hard not to wince,
unless i toadied up
to libertines —

absinthe tipplers
who sharpened their Truths
on canted berets
and rouged smiles.

i felt no bliss
from the easy atheism —
the stolid smugness
of the QED.

the argument pouted
like a carp yanked
from festive brine,
its stare lucid yet tawdry,
soon to glaze.

Panic Attack

 

terrors come
like locusts turned gymnast,
corkscrewing in spaghetti
knotted inside.

they churn
into a messy slurry of demons,
murky evils that osmose
into veins, muscles,

the anxious writhes
of my whines.

who can cleanse my nerves
of this vicious cement?
why does it harden when i'm
on an escalator,

sacrificing me
among happy people
to fangs at the bottom
of the slide?

Leaf On Asphalt

 

skittering limp
that once jounced
on the teat of a bough,

now rodent-like,
a rat phantom,
part grey, part cartwheel,
amble of scumbled knives —

a reckless flurry
that could be me, or
a galaxy hobbling —

it's a fact that vagrants
started out as the flesh of stars.

my headlights gawk and gloat,
exposing the runt
tatterdemalion;

but we are all like that, really —
afraid, stumbling, fallen, decrepit —
once denied any door.

Chris Crittenden has been published in many journals, including Chelsea, Flyway, Harpur Palate, Atlanta Review, Ellipsis, The Evansville Review, Blue Unicorn, The Blind Man's Rainbow, The Rose & Thorn, Poetry Magazine, Main Street Rag, The Macguffin, Kennesaw Review and The Hurricane Review. He was a featured poet in the fall issue of the online journal From East to West: Bicoastal Verse. He lives in the easternmost town in the US near the Quoddy Lighthouse.

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